9) Specific Policies: Childrens Private Medical Insurance

One way of reducing private medical insurance costs is taking out a very specific policy. The health insurance market is coming up with more and more ways to reduce costs but still enable people to get the kind of care that they want.

Children's Medical Insurance
There are specific policies available now that only cover your children.

AXA PPP offers First Healthcare. This is a health cover plan for children which works under their six week option. This means that if a child cannot be treated within six weeks for their day or outpatient treatment then they will be covered by the insurance.

Ben Faulkner, speaking for AXA PPP, says:

'Regardless of waiting times, the policy covers immediate access to private outpatient tests and costly MRI and CT scans. It also pays – again irrespective of NHS waits – for the child to see an experienced consultant privately at a convenient time for both child and parent, helping to relieve the worry of not knowing what’s wrong.'

Medical cover from First Healthcare costs £9.99 per month for the first child and then £8.99 for each additional child.

Child Health Solutions from Child Health Cover was launched in September and provides paediatric health insurance for children from birth to 18 years old. This policy costs £13.50 for a first child with discounts for additional children. It includes dental cover and speech therapy. It also provides access to specialist paediatric hospitals and a 24hr GP helpline.

Rebecca Freebody, head of propositions management and market development at Aviva UK Health, says that the research they carried out showed that people who maybe could not afford full health insurance cover were keen to still have protection for their children:

'When we first conceived the product there wasn’t a child-only product available in the market. Our product has core cover similar to adult PMI, but it also covers physiotherapy, chiropody, dental and speech therapy which often have long NHS waits. Our policy is comprehensive in that as soon as the child needs treatment they can access it straightaway.'